The Good Old Days
by Smallhands
Summary: Ever wondered how the Four Horsemen of the Apocralypse got together and what they do in their free time.
1. Prologue

This is my first Disc-World fic so it may be a bit random, I haven't read all the books but I've read quite a few. It's pretty much about the four horse men of the apocalypse. I'm going to read Thief of Time and once I have I'll put Ronnie in, all I know about him is that he quit before he got famous and is a good milkman. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Great A'Tuin sailed through space carrying the Disc which was supported by four elephants standing on his or her* back. The sun rose and light spread across the Disc like cold treacle, slowly.  
  
All was normal on the Disc, a lone wolf howled under a full moon, but stopped because it was embarrassed when no one joined in.  
  
Death was in his garden attending to his bees, he was wearing a beekeeper's hat and gloves as well as the usual hooded cloak. It wasn't as if he could feel the bees stinging him it was just that sometimes they flew into his skull and buzzed around. It was annoying having the echo of bees buzzing in your skull and bumping into the sides of it, last time it took three weeks to get them all out.  
  
The garden of Death was all black but if you looked closely you could see different shades of black, it was like a whole colour palette except it was of one colour.  
  
Death walked back to house carrying the black honey-comb he had obtained from the bee-hive. On the way he passed the outskirts of his domain where, if you listened closely, you could hear the last words people had said before they died.  
  
"Wha-"  
  
"Is it just me or is it really hot in here?"  
  
"Look, a box on le-"  
  
"It's a nice view if you lean this wa-"  
  
Death passed the stables and gave Binky, his horse, a gentle pat. Binky was white and glowed, his hooves sparked whenever they touched the ground. He looked almost too intelligent to be a horse, could carry immensely heavy loads and time had no meaning to him, that's how Death was always in time for someone's dying.  
  
He walked through the large doors of his house, past the umbrella stands with his scythe in it and the clock that had no hands and walked to his study where he sat down in his desk, waiting.  
  
He heard the soft clatter of hooves and a distant swearing as three men got of their horses. After a few minutes Death heard the front door open as War, Famine and Pestilence walked in, the other members of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  
  
War entered the study first, his chain mail clinking slightly.  
  
"Sorry we're a bit late old man, the Tsoteans and the Ephebians were having a few quarrels again," War sat down in a big black chair.  
  
"DON'T WORRY, I HAVEN'T BEEN WAITING LONG," Death's voice sounded like two gravestones grating against each other and his voice seemed to enter the head without bothering to go through the ears.  
  
Pestilence, who was weedy, and Famine, who was thin and ragged, came in after War and sat in the two remaining chairs.  
  
"War, how are Terror, Panic and Clancy doing?" Pestilence asked in a thin weedy voice.  
  
"Just fine, but life was so much better in the days where I didn't have children," War answered.  
  
"AH YES, THE GOOD OLD DAYS."  
  
All of them sat in a reverie, thinking about days gone by.  
  
"How about a game of Bridge?" asked Famine in a hollow voice, "You know, that game the little fellow Two-Flower taught us."  
  
"A GOOD IDEA, DO YOU REMEMBER THAT TIME WHEN......."  
  
*No one knows the gender of great A'Tuin, some wizards found out but they fell off the edge of the Disc before they got to tell anyone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That is where I'll stop for now, I know it was short but it was just an introduction sort of thing. 


	2. Binkey

I haven't updated this in ages, I feel really bad about that. Got exams starting on Wednesday, sigh. Disclaimer: I do not own the Discworld or William Tell.   
  
Time means nothing in the world of Death, it also means nothing to Death which is way he is never late for, shall we say, an appointment. A black cowled figure rode through the infinity of timeless space on a skeletal horse. He landed on the Disc by the house of Shillian Vell.  
  
Shillian Vell was currently helping his friend increase very poor accuracy with a bow and arrow. He stood in front of a tree with an apple tied to his head.  
  
"C'mon, Drake, you can do it," Shillian unwisely encouraged his shaking friend.  
  
"Are you sure about this Shillian?" Drake's arrow knocked against his bow.  
  
Death was just in time, he picked up his scythe and rather clumsily dismounted. As he did so his foot caught in the horse's ribcage, it was stuck. Death tugged his foot but only managed in succeeding to pull the horse's ribcage off the rest of its skeleton. He sighed as he walked up to Shillian, ribcage banging on the ground, waiting for the inevitable.  
  
Death raised his scythe as Drake's arrow flew through the air hitting Shillian squarely in the head. He then cut the blue line of light that connected Shillian's soul to his body.  
  
Shillian looked at the skeleton in front of him and his body behind him.  
  
"I always thought that Drake had such potential," Shillian shook his head, "but he always let his nerves get in the way."  
  
Death just nodded and disappeared into the infinite darkness.  
  
That night Death sat in his study, thinking, he really needed a new horse. The flaming ones he used to have kept burning up their stalls and now the skeletal ones were falling apart.  
  
Death walked into the cobbled market square, looking for a horse. He hadn't seen anything to his liking though, none of the horses seemed fit for the job. He saw Bays and Chestnuts, Palominos and Duns but none of them would be able to cope with the job.  
  
He was just about to head back to his home when he saw it. The white horse stood in the market square shinning softly, it made everything around it look like some bad Hollywood film set. The horse trotted toward him, its hooves causing the cobblestones to spark. This was the horse he was looking for.  
  
After a brief discussion to the owner of the horse Death was leading it back to his domain. The owner stood in the market square still not quite grasping who had actually bought his horse.  
  
Albert inspected the horse that Death had bought.  
  
"It's a nice horse," he eventually said, "looks a bit to intelligent for a horse though."  
  
I SHALL CALL HIM BINKEY Death patted Binkey's nose.  
  
Albert watched the master return to the house leaving him the job of putting the horse away.  
  
"Binkey?" he said incredulously.  
  
And so that was how Death found hi faithful partner Binkey. Binkey who knew nothing of time, space an weight.

This is a lot harder when you are extremely bony as you would expect a skeleton to be.

Short again I know but I just wanted to put another chapter up before the exams started.


End file.
